Ingredient Information

Garlic

Garlic is a member of the onion family and is a close cousin to red and white onions as well as leeks and shallots. Like others in the Alliaceae family, garlic is strong and pungent when fresh and raw, but mellows as it cooks, taking on a slightly sweet, savory/umami flavor.

Cooking garlic over a high heat and letting it brown will turn the garlic slightly bitter. With some recipes, you want that flavor but when you want a soft, sweeter garlic flavor, as in Tomato Sauce or Fettuccini Alfredo, cook the garlic very slowly over a low heat so that it turns a soft white color and then translucent.

Using a garlic roaster is great.  The best ones are made of terra cotta and have a glazed dish so that the oil won’t absorb into the clay. They’re cheap – ten or fifteen dollars at most and come in single bulb sizes but there are larger ones that allow you  to roast about four heads at once. Roasted garlic keeps about a week if you put it in a tightly sealed glass container or a ziplock bag.

If you don’t want to spring for a roaster, using a sauce pan that has a thick bottom will work fine. Reduce the heat in the oven by about 25°, depending on the thickness of the pan.

For use raw, mince your garlic after peeling. Separate the cloves of garlic and trim the stem end. You don’t have to peel the garlic and can simply place it on a cutting board. Place the flat of your knife blade on top and carefully lean against the knife using the heel of your hand. After you have crushed the clove, the skin will slide off and the cloves will mince easily after crushing.

Good Grips and other manufacturers make a nifty garlic peeler. This is a small, flexible silicone tube big enough for three
or four garlic cloves. Pop your unpeeled clove inside, roll on the counter and out pops the peeled clove. The silicone tube is an easy clean up. At about 7 bucks this product is a must have if you are going to be cooking for a crowd.

There are three basic types of garlic available in grocery stores today. The white skinned garlic (often referred to as American garlic – which it is not necessarily true), pink skinned garlic and elephant garlic.

White skinned garlic is the strongest and most pungent. The pink skinned is a milder garlic and is often referred to as Mexican or Italian garlic. The large elephant garlic is the mildest of all. When roasting garlic, use the pink skinned as it makes for a softer, richer garlic flavor. Roasting elephant garlic can often yield a tough, fibrous product.

3 cloves garlic = 17 calories, <1g fat, 0g sat fat, 0g mono fat, <1g protein, 3g carbohydrates, 2mg sodium, 0mg cholesterol, 0 mcg Vitamin K

Related Articles

Garlic still not a magic pill:
We reported recently on a study in Europe that showed that garlic supplementation had no effect on cholesterol levels. A group of researchers in Stanford, California have just released an even more compelling study that appears to confirm the earlier findings.

Garlic: tastes great and… just tastes great:
I’ve previously reported on the positive effects of garlic on lowering cholesterol and noted that it’s hard to study garlic because of the characteristic smell and flavor. Worse, scientists have a hard time agreeing on what form of garlic to use (fresh? powder? pill?) and which strain of garlic to study.